Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-27
NAPOLEON'S RIV AL In P0MP.
A Duke and the Gorgeous Life
He Led.

The Duke de la Rochefoucauid-Don-
deauvile is dead. He was not so well
known to the public of the present day
as some of his relatives, but he was
really M ore worthy of note than them
all. Indeed he used to be the most con-
spicuous member of the family, but that
was long ago, in the days of the en-
pire. Nor is there a more conspicuous
family in France than that of the
Rochefoucaulds, apart from royalty
itself. The late Dukes brother is the
famous Duke de la Rochefoucauld-
Bisaccia, whose daughters are the
Duchess de Luynes and the Princess de
Ligne. His wife was sister of the
Marquis de Colbert. The whole family,
of course, is intensely royalist, that is
Orleanst, and equally hostile to the
republic and to the Bohapartes.
The late Duke was probably
the best specimen of the old
school obility to be found in France.
His wealth was enormous. They
say his income was 81, 900, 600 year.
His mansion in the Rue de Yarennes
was accounted the finest private resi-.
dence in Paris, and Chateau Ia Grandi.
Mere, at Vendome, was second. only to
Chantilly itself. He always spent the
summer and autumn at La Grandiniere,
and during the empire, when the Or
leanists were in exile, it was a arallyiDg
point of all the Monarchists. His
hunting and shooting parties there were
almost equal to those of later years at
Chantlly. Hekept $50 horses ID his sta.
bles and 200 dogs in his kennels. When
he rode out he was attended by body.
guard of 100 brilliantly uniformed
horsemen and by mounted band of
twenty musicians. In this regal style
he used to ride about the country, tax.
ing pleasure in annoying the adherents
of the Empire. So far, indeed, did he
carry his pomp and display tbet the
Prefect of the Department brought it to
the attention of the Emperor, asking If
it would not be best to put stop to it.
But Napoleon, although much annoyed
by the Dukes conduct, did not
dare to interfere. In Paris, the
Dukes course was, il possible,
still more exasperating. Did Napoleon
hold a reception at the Tuileries, the
Duke also held one in the Rue de Var.
ennes with greater pomp. Did the En-
peror get new equipage, forthwith the
Duke obtained finer. Did the En-
peror spend 1000, 900 francs, the Duke
spent 100000 Year after year he out
shone the Imperial Court. But the end
came at last. This was when the last of
his four children died and he realized
that there would be no one to bear his
H. aoasafx,
and hid himself from the world that
had known him. Most of the time
he lived quietly at Cannes, while
his vast fortune went on accumulating
and increasing at prodigious rate. He
died at Cannes of heart disease, without
an hour of i'll health, and the event
passed almost unnoticed by the world.
His vast fortune. estimated at something
more than $50, ZOO, 900, will all go to the
Duke de la Rochefoucauld. Bisaccia. As
the latter nobleman already has for.
tune of $l5,0O0.000, he thus becomes
one of the wealthiest men in Europe.
His wife and daughters possess the
finest and costliest jewels in the world
outside of royal collections, aud,
indeed, are only surpassed by the crown
jewels of England and France. The
father of these two dukes was that fam.
ous Sosthene de la Rochefoucauld, who
was Minister of Fine Arts under the
reign of the restored Bourbons. He
will be remembered chiefly as a stern
censor of public morals. In his depart
ment he had an opportunity to make a
parade of austere virtue, and he did so
with surprising effect. He issued the
famous decree that all ballet dancers at
the opera should wear skirts coming
within half metre (l9d inches) OF the
floor, the said skirts to be of nen-trans-
parent material, and the hem weighted
by sewing in shot or sand, so that in
rapid dancing it will not rise higher
than the prescribed distance from the
floor. He also applied himself to re-
forming the works of art at the Louvre.
He did not go SO far as the Pope who
clad marble goddesses in skirts of sheet.
iron, but he actually had certain
draperies added to all the nude statues,
and some of the more Objectionable ones
and several paintings he had locked up
where the public could not behold them.
His grandchildren are reputed to be less
severe in moral sense.-[Paris Letter to
Chicago Tribune.